Two new species of ascaridoid nematodes in Brazilian Crocodylomorpha from the Upper Cretaceous

Made available in DSpace on 2019-10-06T16:36:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2019-10-01 Two new ascaridoid species, Bauruascaris cretacicus n. gen. et n. sp., and Bauruascaris adamantinensis n. gen. et n. sp., are described based on the fossils of eggs preserved in 80–70 million year old phosphatized coprolites of Crocodyliformes, chronologically assigned to the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian/Maastrichtian age), collected from sedimentary rocks of the Bauru Group, Adamantina Formation in the municipality of Santo Anastácio, in the southwestern region of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, South America. This paper describes the oldest ascaridoid species ever recorded in Crocodylomorpha. Hence, this article contributes to the body of knowledge about the evolutionary history of this nematode group. It also offers a clue about the composition of the parasite fauna of these reptiles from the Late Cretaceous, which is still unknown despite numerous studies about various aspects of their biology and the pioneering paleoparasitological analysis of animal coprolites by South American researchers. Núcleo de Evolução e Paleobiologia de Vertebrados Departamento de Geologia Aplicada Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas Universidade Estadual Paulista UNESP, Campus Rio Claro, Avenida 24 A/1515, Jardim Bela Vista Núcleo de Evolução e Paleobiologia de Vertebrados Departamento de Geologia Aplicada Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas Universidade Estadual Paulista UNESP, Campus Rio Claro, Avenida 24 A/1515, Jardim Bela Vista